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San Francisco Home Prices Dip as Costs in Different Cities Continue to Increase

San Francisco City has always been plagued with several unpleasant real estate news lately and this most recent news is a breath of fresh air.

Home prices in San Francisco dip as costs in different cities continue to increase, Realtor.com reports, citing data from S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

High home prices in S.F.

Based on a RealtyTrac report, RISMedia notes that San Francisco had a 39 percent increase in home prices from 2012 to 2014 and belonged to the top 25 cities with highest home appreciation in the said period. It was also part of the group of housing markets with home price increase outpacing wage growth. In San Francisco's case, wage hike was 7.1 percent,making its home price increase outpace wage hike by more than five times. San Francisco was also part of the list of 45 metros deemed unaffordable.

In the first Mortgage Affordability Report released by Realtor.com, San Francisco area topped the survey consisting of the 25 largest housing markets in the U.S.

The mortgage-to-income ratio of San Francisco in 2014 is 64.7 percent and Realtor.com predicted it to rise to 72.0 percent in 2015.

Home price dip to continue?

Now, it's time for San Francisco to celebrate, even a little. S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices said San Francisco reported the biggest monthly dip of 0.86 percent of all the 20 metropolitan regions surveyed in the study for the January 2015 period. According to its website, the 20 regions included the following: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

Home prices on the average increased by as much as 7.9 percent compared to the same period last year, yet still lower than the 9.4 percent home price increase reported in December 2014, Realtor notes.

According to the National Association of Realtors®, San Francisco's average home price in the last quarter just a year ago was $742,900. A light dip from this high price may be beneficial to make this city affordable.

There were other cities which have lower home price indices such as Seattle (0.52 percent) and Washington DC (0.51 percent) from the reported data.

However, it is important to note that the dip in home price indices was just based on January 2015 released data. As spring selling season starts, home prices are expected to rise again soon. Hopefully, San Francisco would still continue to receive good news.


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